“In Kenya, 82 percent of midwives correctly diagnose their patient’s condition but only 28 percent give the full treatment required, the World Bank said on Friday, highlighting the challenge of reducing maternal deaths in the country despite the introduction of free maternal health services last month,” Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. “Giving birth with the help of a trained professional is deemed a critical factor in reducing maternal mortality but the statistics, released in the first Service Delivery Indicators (SDI) survey — an Africa-wide World Bank initiative aimed at improving service delivery in basic health and primary education facilities — shows that pregnant Kenyan women aren’t getting the care they need,” the news service writes. Shahnaz Sharif, Kenya’s director of public health and sanitation, “blamed a lack of training for the gap between diagnosis and the delivery of treatment in the country … [b]ut a member of the doctors’ union said the problem was one of lack of investment in the health sector,” according to the news service. “Similar gaps in diagnosis and treatment were found with nurses and doctors, who gave the correct diagnosis in 72 percent and 86 percent of cases respectively but only gave full treatment in 46 percent and 54 percent of cases,” Reuters notes (Migiro, 7/12).